led them to show in this way their sadness at its decay? or do they by
mourning over the close of the sun's longest day symbolize their
recognition of the inevitable end of the longest life of man? I cannot
tell. But, blind as this worship is, it is better than that of the work
of man's hands. By God's will your countrymen may be led from kneeling
to the created to mount the ladder till they bend the knee only to the
Creator. It may be well, too, that their chosen object of veneration is
the only object in nature which dies but to rise again. Thus may they be
led to the comprehension of the great truth of the resurrection. But
Satan," he added with warmth, "must be wrestled with and cast down,
specially when he takes the forms of temptation which he has assumed
to-day: those of power and beauty. Prayer and fasting are sorely
needed."

For once his pupil was not altogether docile. "Thou hast taught me,
father," he replied, "the lesson of charity. This old woman is sinful,
her error is deep, but may she not be converted and saved?"

"The devils can never regain Paradise," replied the priest sternly. "Arm
thyself, Jean, against their wiles, in which I fear thou art already
entangled. The two forms we have to-day seen are but human in seeming:
demons surely lurked beneath."

Jean was now in open rebellion. "Nay, good father," he said decisively,
"the maiden was no fiend; if her companion be an imp of darkness, as
well she may, be it my task to rescue her from the evil snare into which
she has fallen!" He had indeed a vivid recollection of the soft, human
hand to which he had ventured to give a gentle pressure when he had
assisted in placing the wreath on the fair, marble, brow, and had no
doubt of the girl's womanhood. As he spoke he vanished from the side of